Little Cayman - above and below

Little Cayman March/Apr 2007

2007-04-10T14:26:00.000-05:00

My seemingly annual trip to LC was a blast from the past as expected. I was supposed to be there for 11 days but I managed to stretch it out into 15! It was very windy the whole time I was there but of course it was warm and sunny so having to dive on the less-spectacular south side of the island most of the time was a minor inconvenience for all the Fun (with a capital F) that was had.

My sister Kathy celebrated a milestone birthday at the beginning of the trip, Paul quietly made his 200th dive (he didn't tell anyone as we would have done something fun (for us) like throw him in the water with a heavy weight belt...), I was able to relive my legend days by helping out on Sea-Esta, Ann survived a gnarly finger-bite from a brown recluse spider, Ben nearly lost 2 fingers mooring the boat, the local rooster was voted to the dump to crow as much as he likes with his mates, Caleb left the island 'for good' for the 7th time (yeah, right), the island lost its paramedic but nurse M-E renewed her contract for 2 more years! And so much more.... Amazing what can happen in such a short time on a speck of land with 150 inhabitants in the middle of the north-western Caribbean Sea!

Here is a glimpse of some of the "good times, good times" as Swaby always says...

Paradise Divers Team 2007

2007-04-10T14:20:00.000-05:00

How the team barely changes over the years.... Ann, Marc, Mathieu, Sabine and I taking refuge from a brief rain storm. If Vince was there instead of Mathieu (and our teeth weren't quite as long) it could have been 2001 :-)

Southern Cross Friday night beach bash

2007-04-10T14:16:00.000-05:00

Check out the amazing sunset at the SCC dock party... love the way the sun reflects off the tidal flats!

2007-04-10T14:12:00.000-05:00

A couple of shots courtesy of Mary Ellen

Caleb, John and Peter

Breezy, Peter, Mary Ellen, Suzanne, me

2007-04-10T13:58:00.000-05:00

Villa 1 Iggy - yet to be named and Kathy and Paul in their usual afternoon hangout - the hammocks!

2007-04-10T13:56:00.000-05:00

Caleb, Ron and Addy toasting Liz who we all missed hanging out with at Beach Nuts bar. Go Flyers! Oops, sorry too late... I know, too late for the Leafs as well:-(

Ben's long but humorous dive briefing...

2007-04-10T13:52:00.000-05:00

2007-04-10T13:42:00.000-05:00

Below are a few shots that I took on the odd dive that I managed to take my camera down with me, and no I didn't flood my camera this trip!
There is one of many squid that we saw while diving the south side most of my trip!
And our Little Cayman reef resident the pipe-horse... supposedly rare sightings these days but we found 4 different ones...
A red and white striped ribbon worm - a new species for me!
The beautiful juvenile yellow-tail damselfish which grows up to be much less brilliantly-coloured and does indeed eventually develop a yellow tail...
A peacock flounder hiding on the sand.
Lastly and most excitingly, Ann found this white seahorse on Black Hole! Bravo!

Sub-marine photos...

2007-04-10T13:36:00.000-05:00

San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize 2006

2006-12-19T23:02:00.000-05:00

I just spent 8 glorious days in some country that most people aren't really sure where it is located. Belize. Some say central America, some say western Caribbean. Anyway, it is just south of the Yucatan penninsula of Mexico. Actually, Ambergris Caye, the island I stayed on is geographically part of the Yucatan but the Mayans dug a trench hundreds of years ago to separate it from Mexico so now it is kind of a man-made island, and is in the northern part of this small country.
I went to visit a friend that I worked with on Little Cayman - you will see many pics of her below. More than she will care for actually but that is not my problem.
Here are a few pics that I took on the trip. Unfortunately for me it poured rain most of the time I was there, but at least it was warm and the mozzies were few. The diving was very nice out at the atolls, not so good off of Ambergris Caye, but any dive is a good dive as far as I am concerned!
The pic below was taken on my last night at BC's, the beach bar that I met Nicole at the day I arrived, and the bar I spent many a rainy afternoon at, and the bar that Stacey and I went to after our last dinner together. Carlo, Oscar, Ernie. Thanks for the Belikins!!!

2006-12-19T23:01:00.000-05:00

2006-12-19T22:52:00.000-05:00

Just a couple of shots at Stacey's house. Note the dog is very very dangerous and rips off limbs at will. At least that is Stacey's story to those who will listen. She is actually quite sedentary (and greasy, yuck) and had to learn to like the Beggin Strips I brought down to keep her from biting me. What kind of dog doesn't immediately devour a Beggin Strip?? Darby (real name is Darcy but my other friend Stacie from Grand Cayman will understand the mispronunciation!)

The other shot is a view from the back deck of the house.

2006-12-19T22:46:00.000-05:00

Stacey's wild and cracy friend Nicole overlapped with my stay for a few days, and we went to a great tapas restaurant, Casa Picasso, to celebrate Nicole's final departure. So, here we are before dinner enjoying a few martinis perfected by Duane. I am sure that was his most fun night in a very long time!

2006-12-19T22:32:00.000-05:00

This Christmas tree, adorned by a an octopus and various other tropical stuffed animals was assembled by Stacey, obviously rather last moment and in a rush - just kidding. The diving video in the background is played 24-7 (at least when the office is open) and Stacey knows which individual scene is being played by the background music now that she has been listening to it for almost 2 months!

Hello, may I help you? Taxi, excursion, towels?
Oh, sorry, I am taking off to Monkey Bites for lunch. Bye-bye now. And I do mean now.

2006-12-19T22:29:00.000-05:00

Here's a shot for Marc and Sabine - your sister resort in downtown San Pedro! What you see is what you get!

2006-12-19T22:27:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple shots of San Pedro's main drag - this was at the beginning of my trip... As the week went on and it rarely stopped raining, the mostly sand roads became more pot-holed, water covered and made a taxi, bike, or golf-cart ride a VERY slow process. It was faster to walk barefoot and cleaner as the flip-flops didn't deposit as much sand and mud on the back of the legs and shorts that way!!

2006-12-19T22:21:00.000-05:00

Belize Underwater Shots

2006-12-18T21:26:00.000-05:00

Indigo hamlets were everywhere at Turneffe atoll! I only saw a few in 4.5 years on Little Cayman...

2006-12-18T21:22:00.000-05:00

A colony of sea rod basket stars! I only ever saw one at Lea Lea's Lookout on LC although I scoured the reef for another for years. This was the first thing I found on my first dive as soon as I got to the wall at Turneffe atoll.

2006-12-18T21:21:00.000-05:00

This appears to be a mollusc encrusted by a sponge clinging to a soft coral?!?

2006-12-18T21:19:00.000-05:00

A porkfish! I never saw these on LC although a couple of dive guests claimed they did.. (but I have my doubts!)

2006-12-18T21:16:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of shots of a nurse-shark feed that our divemaster conducted off of Ambergris Caye - there were 8 sharks partaking in the 'fun' and afterward we held them and scratched their full bellies...

2006-12-18T21:14:00.000-05:00

These are my favorite sponges - they look like small stalagmites, or even tastier ice-cream treats!

Dave and Tia do T.O.

2006-06-18T18:32:00.000-05:00

LC Dave drove up to Canada from Florida a couple of weeks ago for a visit and a chance to take a break before he starts his new kitesurfing job in Cape Fear, NC. At first there was no wind for any kitesurfing here, then the wind picked way up and it was way too freaking cold!!!! Oh well, the Molson Canadian were even colder.

My friend Aziz was growing a hayfield in his small front yard in Cabbagetown so we whipper-snippered it down a few inches.... see before and after shots!

Check out the lawn! Tia and Chachi were very content to stand around and watch.........

Hanging out at an outdoor pub near the Beaches. Tia was desperate to join us on the deck, but the nasty waitress with the fly that was down wouldn't let her come up:-(

2006-05-14T11:04:00.000-05:00

I went 'home' to Little Cayman recently and caught up with a lot of the old friends who still work and live on the island... Of course nothing changes quickly there - a few strange faces and a huge house now stands where Suzy's cottage teetered on the sand previously beside the Conch Club.
The chickens are still living at the dump, the iguanas are bountiful, the road is in worse condition, and there is a nice new ambulance that Andrew drives around looking for action. Oh yeah, there are also babies everywhere! Thanks to Conch Club Divers staff, Liz and Tim for allowing me to dive from Sea-Esta and reunite with the critters under the sea surface. Thanks Marc and Sabine for the stay at Paradise Villas! The following is an assortment of photos that I took during the 2 weeks. Hope you like. ~R

Mathieu is now in his second year of air breathing!!!

2006-05-14T10:55:00.000-05:00

Island Views

2006-05-14T10:46:00.000-05:00

Sub-marine photos!!!

2006-05-14T00:29:00.000-05:00

For those of you like KD and Mike B who would rather see photos of the underwater world, rather than mi amigos on the island, here are a few pics that I managed to take on my trip.

2006-05-14T00:26:00.000-05:00

A bit out of season as far as their name goes, but this Christmas tree worm lives up to its name!

2006-05-14T00:24:00.000-05:00

We saw a few of these pipefish - relatives of the seahorse - in the sand in J-Bay!

2006-05-14T00:21:00.000-05:00

Here is a juvenile spotted drum frantically swmming around and trying to catch those little translucent mysid shrimp for dinner!!

2006-05-14T00:19:00.000-05:00

Mixing Bowl has always been a great site for finding all sorts of creatures - this is the male yellowhead jawfish incubating its mate's eggs in its mouth until they hatch into miniature little jawfish..

2006-05-14T00:17:00.000-05:00

This was a very koool find at Coconut Walk - a spiny lobster seeking refuge in a barrel sponge shaped like a heart. Too bad Valentine's Day has passed!

2006-05-14T00:15:00.000-05:00

Atlantic wing oyster on a sea fan at Mixing Bowl

2006-05-13T23:56:00.000-05:00

Joy's Joy dive site always seems to have something unique happening. This hawksbill turtle and French angel were content to munch on a sponge for several minutes while we all watched patiently.

2006-05-13T23:52:00.000-05:00

This is a pic of a giant anemone and if you look closely at the bottom of the photo, two common residents can be seen - the arrow crab and the diamond blenny (yellow head) who both seek refuge in the anemone's tentacles!

2006-05-13T23:46:00.000-05:00

An arrow crab hangs out in the relative security of a pink vase sponge!

2006-05-13T23:38:00.000-05:00

This really excited me - I had shown this colony of sea rod basket stars to guests for years on Bloody Bay Wall (Lea Lea's Lookout site, on the wall at 60') on the same gorgonian, and when we dived the site recently, lo and behold, a giant basket star has decided to join the team of little guys on the same soft coral. I guess there is always room for relatives to filter the current at night! (and I have no idea how the colony of approximately 200 sea rod basket stars could ever relocate, so they will probably be there for a very long time)

2006-05-13T23:36:00.000-05:00

I know - it is the common lettuce sea slug - but I do actually really think they are beautiful! Escargots, anyone??

2006-05-13T23:10:00.000-05:00

Liz and Lappy and I enjoying the sunset at salt rock dock on the north-western side of the island...

2006-05-13T22:57:00.000-05:00

OK - what can I say about these two beautiful people that I have only known for just over a year?? My sarcastic buddy Andrew is the paramedic on the island and has had to deal with many medical emergencies the past year. He is great for the island. Intensely-intelligent and gorgeous Heather (aka Barbie-girl - sorry H), a veterinarian from GA, came down to the rock as a dive guest of Paradise Divers last summer and has since packed up her belongings and moved down to LC to spend time with her new fiance. They are such a cute couple I want to barf. Kidding! I really miss you guys! Hope to see y'all very soon. Oct?

2006-05-13T22:48:00.000-05:00

Every May 5th - cinqo de Mayo - Peter H, the owner of the Southern Cross Club from Indiana, has a party where everyone is welcome, as usual, and celebrates the night with his own fireworks show and a party at the end of the resort dock. It is also the anniversary of his resort ownership - 11 years so far and I have a feeling it will keep going for many more. He is a great guy that everyone loves to hang with.

2006-05-13T22:41:00.000-05:00

Liz and I have a much-anticipated pilgrimage to Owen Island when we get together - we borrowed the skiff , Little Willie, from CCD one afternoon and had a picnic there with kites, beer, Hungry Iguana take-away and the little island off of LC in the south sound all to ourselves one glorious afternoon. This time she didn't let go of the kite tanning topless and the kite did not end up wrapped around the Southern Cross dock, as it did last time!!

2006-05-13T22:31:00.000-05:00

This the 42' Newton dive boat that the Conch Club Guests as well as the Paradise Villas guests dive from nowadays. Tim has worked on this boat for about 6 years and Liz (la capitana that day) is an ex-LCBR dive instructor who is on a 3 month work permit with CCD. She is from Philly and loves the Flyers (too bad they sucked again this year). Liz is an amazing woman and I love spending time with her!!! She makes amazing meals, especially her Philly-steak sandwiches and pastas! She is off to Italy with her Dad after her LC stint ends at the end of May.

2006-05-13T22:19:00.000-05:00

This is Ann whom I have known since I arrived on LC way back in
April 2001. She was supposed to greet me at the airport when I arrived
on the little rock, as Marc and Sabine were vacationing in Mexico, BUT,
she got the dates confused so I wondered all the way over to the Paradise
Villas office (all of 100 meters) when I arrived and surprised her! I have worked with her several times and enjoy her sense of humor. I took over her house, the Colonel's
Quarters back in 2001 when she left the island for a while, and after I left
in Aug 2005, Ann moved back in to 'our' house so it came full-circle..
She now works at Conch Club Divers and has the nicest tanned legs on
the island!! She taught me the meaning of the word Shadenfreude and I
use it all the time!
Notice Paradise Villas in the background of the photo!!!!

2006-05-10T21:08:00.000-05:00

Lisa aka 'Herby' the wonder bartender, moi, Ingrid - new dive instructor extraordinaire at Pirate's Point, and Rafael - her fingers will make your deep tissues blush at the spa.

2006-05-10T20:49:00.000-05:00

Lappy gives me some tongue while Andrew, Liz and Tim just look goofy
at the weekly LCBR karaoke festivities

2006-05-10T20:37:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is, 8 months later and I haven't blogged for so long I can barely remember how! This pic was taken the last day of my 2 week trip to LC and I thought it was fitting to blog it first, as Mary Ellen had remained on the front page of my blog for so many months! This time we are not at Owen Island in kayaks, but recovering from cuncurrent colds by sipping Bloody Marys at the Hungry Iguana!

Rod's Return to the Great White North

2005-10-05T14:19:00.000-05:00

Well, I have not updated the blog since I left Little Cayman over a month ago. I am back in Toronto getting settled, enjoying the remainder of the warm summer and dreading the cold winter!
I have decided to put some underwater photos up for sale if anyone is interested in taking a look you can find them at www.lulu.com and search for my name - Rod Dickson - or more specifically scuba-rod . I think the calendar is kinda cool and the CD has all my best shots on it. I spent a lot of time getting those published so I hope to sell at least 1 of each! Beer money needed!! Thanks to all the past dive guests of Paradise Villas/Paradise Divers that helped to make my 4.5 years on Little Cayman so enjoyable!! Who knows, someday I could be back.... Rod

2005-08-24T22:17:00.000-05:00

Heather, Rod and Mary Ellen hanging out at the Southern Cross Club. What, no Heineken?!?

2005-08-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

Mary Ellen and I soaking up the sun in the 90 degree waters at Owen island this afternoon

2005-08-23T22:12:00.000-05:00

OK! I had to add a new pic that I took a few days ago of this beautiful seahorse - never have I seen one this color... Gay, from Pirate's Point, showed me the area that he had been seen in, and I managed to find him at the end of the dive. BTW, we have named him "Peachy". No wonder why...

2005-08-11T16:29:00.000-05:00

A banded clinging crab waves good-bye to me on my last dive from Banana Wind:-(

2005-08-10T20:06:00.000-05:00

A Pederson cleaner shrimp just waiting for me to put out my hand to let him try to pick off some dead bits of skin!

2005-08-08T21:15:00.000-05:00

Oh yes, Nancy T came for a surprise visit this past week from WA and of course, we took a couple of beers to Salt Rock dock for the sunset...

2005-08-08T21:07:00.000-05:00

***DANGER***
DO NOT try this at home! If you find a scorpionfish in your backyard (or pool) this summer, do NOT pick it up, as it can inflict a very venomous/deadly wound via its dorsal fin!! Only to be done by trained professionals!!

2005-08-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

A couple of scarlet striped cleaner shrimps just after they cleaned a hogfish at the Soto Trader dive site .... still hungry but nothing but my camera to clean!!

2005-08-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, another seahorse was spotted at Mixing Bowl yesterday! We found it at 40 feet and it was moving from a gorgonian to a sponge in slow motion.

2005-08-08T20:55:00.000-05:00

Hey - we found another juvenile trunkfish today on Paul's Anchors... different colors, different species?? We are thinking that it is a juv spotted trunkfish, rather than a smooth trunkfish. Any ideas??

2005-07-31T13:28:00.000-05:00

A half-inch juvenile trunkfish sporting its translucent fins was seen bopping around Marilyn's Cut dive site this morning. It only took about 12 shots to get one in focus!

2005-07-28T16:43:00.000-05:00

Can you tell that Marc has been working on our topless boat a lot recently? And also that Sabine and Mathieu have been hiding away in their house!?!?

2005-07-28T16:39:00.000-05:00

FINALLY - I got a pic of the shy and very elusive peppermint bass (yes, there are a lot of peppermint-named animals in the sea). These little guys are quite common but don't like divers it seems:-( Don't you just wanna lick it?

2005-07-25T16:52:00.000-05:00

It is always interesting to see the various species of sponges spawning during the spring and summer. This spawn occurred just after the latest full moon. I am surprised that none of the fish or crabs were interested in having a free meal as I have seen in the past!

2005-07-23T19:48:00.000-05:00

I had hoped(!!), but never thought that I would find another seahorse before I left the little rock. He is on the Soto Trader wreck dive site so I will definitely have to look for him again before we stop diving in a couple of weeks!

2005-07-23T19:44:00.000-05:00

There has been a school of what I believe are southern sennet (relatives of barracuda!) hanging around our wreck, the Soto Trader, for the past couple of months. They encircled our divers this afternoon and made for a great photo-op.

2005-07-23T19:41:00.000-05:00

I hadn't seen a green turtle for months, (we do have heaps of hawksbill turtles here) so I was very happy to see this guy swim by with an attached shark sucker at Nancy's Cup of Tea this morning!

2005-07-23T19:38:00.000-05:00

Peppermint gobies are very common but I like this shot because he was sitting on one of my favorite corals, blushing star coral. (And they are hard to get in focus with my point and shoot digital camera!)

2005-07-19T17:51:00.000-05:00

A large rainbow parrotfish speeding past us at the end of the dive at Mixing Bowl this morning

2005-07-19T17:46:00.000-05:00

This photo is courtesy of my sister, Kathy, who was here for a week with my bro-in-law Paul, for their 8th, and perhaps last visit for quite a while! They also survived Hurricane Emily with us this past weekend!
It is, in fact, a pic of myself and Jerri, one of our friendly Nassau groupers, taken at Donna's Delight just a moment before the inevitable lip contact...

2005-07-16T12:14:00.000-05:00

Hurricane Emily appears that it will pass quite far to our south so we have probably prepared for another dud of a storm.
Here are a couple of pics I took in the 'cave' at Bush Gardens, for those of you who know what I am talking about. Both taken on the wall at the shoreline in about 10 feet of water. Any ideas??

ID'd!! - a dusky cardinalfish

2005-07-16T12:13:00.000-05:00

juvenile fish of some type (butterfly?), an open fileclam and an arow crab

2005-07-14T22:06:00.000-05:00

We found this 3 inch long juvenile burrfish on a night dive last night at Cumber's Caves dive site. It was the first juvenile I have seen. Way kool:-)

2005-07-14T22:04:00.000-05:00

This is the most common hamlet here in the Cayman Islands - a barred hamlet that I was finally able to frame and focus properly.

2005-07-14T22:02:00.000-05:00

This Nassau grouper at the Great Wall West dive site was too busy getting cleaned by all these gobies to care that my camera was 2 feet away from his face!! Why he doesn't just swallow those little striped and tasty-looking small fish for a snack is still a mystery to me.

2005-07-14T21:59:00.000-05:00

This may be just another fish to many of you, but it is the first cave basslet that I have managed to get a photo of, as they are very cryptic and extremely difficult to get a photo of, as they tend to hide as soon as they see you!

2005-07-09T16:41:00.000-05:00

Mathieu and Marc leaving for an island tour just before we were hit by a big storm yesterday afternoon.

2005-07-09T16:40:00.000-05:00

Our dock (well, Pirate's Point's dock) was disassembled yesterday so that the hurricane wouldn't tear it apart. Lots of work and for no need this time, but ya never know!

2005-07-09T16:37:00.000-05:00

This strange, 5 inch long, stick-like insect was clinging to my porch screen for dear life during the brunt of the hurricane yesterday. Are there any entomologists out that that can tell me what it is?

2005-07-05T20:30:00.001-05:00

We had 2 eagle rays chillin' with us on our dive at Meadows this morning!

2005-07-05T20:30:00.000-05:00

Liz sporting her latest boat-umbrella today, that I picked up in Toronto last week at the parade.

2005-06-21T19:54:00.000-05:00

one of Paul Allen's yachts, "TATOOSH"

Heading back to Toronto for a few days...

2005-06-21T19:46:00.000-05:00

I won't be posting any photos for the next couple of weeks as I am taking a vacation back to the motherland of T.O. You can check back here after July 4th for more updates on Mathieu and the diving here off of the little rock.
I was extremely lucky on Friday to be invited to dive off of Tatoosh, one of Paul Allen's yachts. I spent two days taking Paul and his guests diving off of the Brac and Little Cayman and got to see how the rich and nearly famous live... It was an experience I will never forget. Unfortunately, I can not post any photos that I took onboard, due to a confidentiality agreement that I signed, but above you will see a picture of the 10th largest yacht in the world - all I can say is WOW! and thank Simon, Tatoosh's main dive instructor, for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime.

2005-06-21T19:37:00.000-05:00

black coral is everywhere inside the Nancy's Cup of Tea swimthrough

2005-06-21T19:30:00.000-05:00

Liz and I kept baby Mathieu happy and content while Sabine went to the office late this afternoon.

2005-06-21T19:27:00.000-05:00

just hanging out with Aunty Liz

2005-06-21T19:25:00.000-05:00

a very happy, recently married, banded butterflyfish couple parading around the reef at Nancy's Cup of Tea

2005-06-13T14:08:00.000-05:00

An easterly pond at sunset last night...

2005-06-11T16:08:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of recent baby photos for those of you that are asking about Mathieu. 6 weeks old and 13 pounds!!

Mathieu et Sabine

2005-06-11T16:07:00.000-05:00

Mathieu et Marc

2005-06-11T15:36:00.000-05:00

yellowface pikeblenny that took up residence in a lugworm mound

2005-06-11T15:35:00.000-05:00

a scorpionfish with particularly stunning plumage...

2005-06-11T15:33:00.000-05:00

We found 4 spotted morays at Mixing Bowl this morning!

2005-06-11T15:32:00.000-05:00

another hermit crab that managed to climb onto a gorgonian at Mixing Bowl

2005-06-11T15:31:00.000-05:00

white cryptic sponges and a bryozoan colony in Nancy's Cup of Tea swim-through

2005-06-08T14:53:00.000-05:00

Here is a pic that Yves from Montreal took of me and one of our many friendly hawksbill turtles. He nearly bumped into my camera the other day.

2005-06-01T15:54:00.000-05:00

Most of our divers are not too interested in the coral - it's all about the fish and critters. Well, this is a less common type called Mussa angulosa and it is different because of its large, fleshy polyps. BTW, if the corals weren't here, there would be no reef fish!!

2005-06-01T15:51:00.000-05:00

A peppermint shrimp in its favorite hangout - a tube sponge (along with a brittle star). Notice the triplefin on the outside of the other sponge.

2005-06-01T15:49:00.000-05:00

A grey reef shark making our dive guests a bit nervous/excited the other day!

2005-06-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

This was the first time I had seen a whitefin sharksucker attached to a rather upset honeycomb cowfish! We have seen the pair roaming BBW the past few days on various dive sites.

Here are some random shots from the past few days of diving...

2005-05-28T12:40:00.000-05:00

Looking towards the sky from 90 feet below the surface at the Nancy's Cup of Tea swim-through